Rainy Tuesday Means Soup

It’s a rainy Tuesday here in the ATL. I am so glad that I got my workout done during my lunch break because I cannot imagine venturing out right now. Joining my office building’s gym has really been a great move. I can get so much more accomplished than if I had to drive to LA Fitness. It’s sort of lacking in the weight machines department, but there is a treadmill, a bike and an elliptical. And not a lot of people use the facility, so they’re almost always free.

I was in the mood to run today. I decided to do four miles. I really feel like I am getting a little bit faster. I ran the first two miles at a 10:00/mile pace and the second two at 9:40/mile. I know it doesn’t sound that fast, but considering I did a lot of my ING half marathon training last March at an 10:30/mile pace, I’ll take it! Speaking of faster running, I found out that the 5K that wasn’t was actually 2.6 miles. I ran 2.6 miles in 23 minutes! I am very proud of myself. It would have been a PR, for sure.

Since it was so yuck out, the chicken soup seemed like the obvious choice for dinner. Sorry for the bad picture.

The recipe is from allrecipes.com and found here. I halved the recipe and pretty much followed it to a T besides subbing fat free sour cream for regular.

This recipe was Jason approved. That pretty much means that it doesn’t taste uber-healthy! The only thing that I would change is not to use the whole peeled tomatoes. I thought they were sort of weird in there.

Now we’re sitting around watching Dirty Jobs. The featured dirty job is making tofu! Who knew?

Oh, we decided to move the wedding to June. I have mixed feelings about it and the whole thing is quite stressful, but I’m trying to be calm about everything.

Too Good to Be True

I chose four recipes for this week’s dinners:

1. Spinach and Feta Bake
2. Chicken Soup
3. Feta Shrimp
4. Southwest Spaghetti Squash.

Tonight I decided to do an easy one and went with the Spinach and Feta Pita Bake. The recipe is found on allrecipes.com. This was basically a disguised pita pizza. And you know how much I love my pita pizzas.

Spinach and Feta Pita Bake – adapted from allrecipes.com
Serves 1

1 whole wheat or multi-grain pita bread
sundried tomato pesto (to cover the bread, not sure of the exact amount)
1 roma tomato, chopped
1 handful of spinach, chopped
1 mushroom, chopped
1 tbsp and 1 tsp reduced fat feta cheese
1 tsp grated parmesan cheese
spray of olive oil from misto
freshly ground pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F

2. Spread tomato pesto onto one side of pita bread, and place it pesto side up on a baking sheet. Top with tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms, feta cheese, and Parmesan cheese. Drizzle with olive oil and season with pepper.

3. Bake for 8 minutes.

This was good but I realized something. I bought Publix brand feta cheese and I don’t like it as much as Athenos brand. The Athenos brand is softer. Anyone else know what I mean? I’ve noted this before, but forgot when I bought the cheese.

I did a bit of googling about the houses that we looked at yesterday. I knew it was too good to be true. They are in a very bad school district. The houses are sort of between a nice area and a not-so nice area and while they are actually in the nice part, the schools that they feed into are not. I don’t know if Jason and I are going to even have kids, but being in a bad school district brings the resale value of a home way down. Plus, if we do have kids, I want them to go to a good school and don’t have the money to send them to private school. I was very lucky growing up. I went to public school the entire time but the public schools in my county were very, very good. Granted, I lived in the DC suburbs and not the city. I really want to live ITP but the schools just generally suck. What’s a girl to do?

Did you go to public or private school? If you are planning on having kids, where will you send them?

Sunday Funday

So, I got some of the things on my to-do list taken care of. Care to guess which ones I didn’t do? That would be getting my oil changed and cleaning the house, the least enjoyable of the bunch, in my opinion.

This morning, Jason and I drove to Decatur to scope out this neighborhood where a bunch of really nice houses were for sale. I was skeptical at first; they were pretty big houses and not that expensive, so I thought that the neighborhood must not be very nice. But it was super cute! I have lived in Decatur several times and I forgot how much I love it there. There are several problems, however. The main one being that the houses are still like $30K more than we can afford. We’re hoping that the price drops. By a lot. Secondly, our lease is not up until September 1st. I’m sure there is some clause about breaking it and we could do it if need be, but it’s not an ideal situation. Although, to get the $8000 tax credit, we’d have to break the lease. So, we’re just going to wait a few months and see if the prices come down.

After our house hunt, I took advantage of the 70 degree day and took the Murphster to the dog park. Murphy is what one might call a bully. He’s the sweetest dog ever when he’s not at the park, but when he’s there, he chases and barks at all the other dogs. I think he’s saying, “Play with me, play with me.” but sometimes the other dog’s owners get annoyed with him. I’ve heard the word obnoxious thrown around. Mr. Loudmouth and I stayed there for about an hour.

Instead of taking advantage of the rest of the day outside, I took a nap. And then went to the gym. I tried to convince myself that it was nice out and I should run outside, but apparently myself was not interested in that. So, I downloaded some new podocasts from The Moth, and did the Arc Trainer for 20 minutes. Afterwards, I did a NRLFW workout that I modified a tiny bit. I am getting sick of Stage 1. I was tempted to skip on to Stage 2, but didn’t. I did:

squats on the smith machine – 20 lbs plus bar, 3 sets of 10
pushups on an incline also using the smith machine – 3 sets of 10
bent over rows – 30 lbs, 3 sets of 10
step ups – 3 sets of 10, both feet
prone jacknife on the stability ball (which I managed to fall off at least 10 times) – 3 sets of 12

I really enjoy lifting weights. I just never remember that I like it until I am finished. As I drove home from the gym, my cousin called. She lives in the DC area but was visiting friends in Atlanta. Her friend lives like 3 miles from me, so I told her that I would go over and see her for a bit.

Going over to this house made me feel very old. My cousin is like 22 or 23 and her friend’s house was like a frat house! Beer everywhere, a beer pong table, millions of people there, etc. I definitely felt a bit out of place. It was good to chat with her though. I stayed for maybe half an hour and went to Publix to buy ingredients for this week’s meals (yes!).

Peace out. I don’t know why I said that.

Chomp & Stomp

After the 5K that wasn’t, I went home, took Murphy for a walk, showered and went over to my friend’s house to go back to the Chomp & Stomp, this time for the chili. We got there around 12:15. To say that parking was a bitch would be an understatement. Look at all these people! The white tents are the chili booths.

We managed to make our way to the chili samples. I think I had maybe five samples. They were just in little cups. I was pleased that a lot of the restaurants had chili that was not made with beef or pork (although a lot did too.) Five samples was not much, maybe the equivalent of a small cup, but I just couldn’t stomach any more than that. Too bad because they had a ton of different chili to try.

We made our way out of the crowded chili lines and into the park, where there were some art booths and some bands. I spotted this booth that had a sign which read, “Free drawings of monsters and robots.” Hell yeah! So I lined up (with a bunch of children, but whatever) to get my free drawing.

The artist asked me whether the monster was happy or sad. I said he was happy. He asked why and I said, and I am fully aware of the cheese factor in this, because he was getting married.

We hung around for a while, drank some beer and listened to music. On our way out, I ran into Angie! Some friends of mine were at the Milltown Arms, which was basically around the corner, so we walked over there. At this point, I was getting tired (the combo of getting up at 6:45 am and drinking beer), so I just had a water and a veggie burger. I hadn’t really eaten, aside from the chili, and thought it might make me perk up. A bunch of different people were having parties, which sounded like fun, but I was just sort of worn out and decided to call it a night.

I’m glad I didn’t go out last night, because I feel like I have a ton of things to do today.

1. Run
2. Walk Murph or take him to the dog park
3. Grocery store (and try to make meal plan)
4. Oil change
5. Meet my cousin, who is visiting a friend here, for dinner.
6. Clean the house, do laundry etc.

The 5K that wasn’t

I am so annoyed right now. I got up early this morning and made my way over to Cabbagetown, about a 10 minute drive, for the Romp & Stomp 5K. It started out fine enough although I forgot my Garmin. I ran into a guy that I knew and made small talk until the race started. I might have gone out too quickly. When I passed the first mile marker, the volunteer there said the time was 8:50. I slowed down a little bit and kept running. Mile 1 had come up really quickly, but after a while, I was like, “Where is the Mile 2 marker?” I kept running and before you knew it, was at the finish line. I’d never passed the second mile marker and the finish line clock said 23:02. The first thing that I thought when I saw the finish line was that there was no way that this was 3.1 miles. There were a lot of grumbles from everyone that this was not a 5K. I heard later that it was something like 2.6 miles. Apparently, we’d all missed some street and cut off a half mile. I am pissed. I paid money to run a 5K, not less. I wanted to PR in this, and think that I was totally on schedule to. I just wrote an email to the race director expressing my disappointment. I feel like this was a total waste of my morning. Oh well. I got a t-shirt. And free chili for the festival later this afternoon.

On a happier note, I had a really good time at the blogger dinner last night! We planned to meet at Seasons 52 at 7:45. Of course, I underestimated the amount of time it took me to get there and was a little late. When I got there, I found Laura getting a glass of wine at the bar. I joined her and we were soon joined by Liz and Angie. Since four out of six of us were there, they let us sit down. After a while, we were like, “Where are Kelly and Emily? We ordered some Rosemary flatbread while we waited. It was camera shy apparently. Or really, I was. Which is kind of silly since I was with a bunch of bloggers that take pictures of their food! After a while, a manager came over to our table and asked which one was Lee. I said it was me and he said that Kelly was on the phone for me. Apparently, she and Emily had both gone to the other Seasons 52. Oops! Since we’d all never met, no one had anyone’s cell number. It took a while, but they made it back to the restaurant where we were!

I had the Mediterranean Shrimp Salad. So did Laura. I think I liked it better than she did!

We had a lot of fun talking and were there for over three hours. I looked at my phone at some point and was shocked that it was after 11. I thought we all got along really well and could be friends in “real life.” It was sort of strange to know so much about these people’s lives when we’ve never even met before. The power of technology.

L-R: Emily, Liz, Laura, Me, Angie, Kelly

I’m really glad that we met up and such cool girls live in Atlanta!

My first hot yoga experience

My co-worker/friend Desiree and I have been talking about going to a hot yoga class for a while now. One of us always was busy or had some excuse so we kept putting it off. On Monday, we decided that today was going to the be the day that we went.

I’ve never been much for yoga. I’ve done a handful of classes at LA Fitness and some DVDs, but never really got into it. I am very inflexible, especially in my hamstrings, and would spend the majority of the class annoyed at myself that I couldn’t get into the pose.

I thought that maybe going to a real yoga studio might make it more enjoyable. I also hoped the heated room would loosen me up. I was sort of nervous for some reason. I guess mostly about the heat more than anything. Too many stories on the news about people dying in sweat lodges! The room was small and it was warm, but it wasn’t too incredibly uncomfortable.

The class was 75 minutes long and, all in all, I really enjoyed it. I had some trouble with some of the poses, but generally felt like I was getting it. I had to use a strap for the poses that required leaning forward and grabbing your feet. I wonder if I’ll ever be able to touch my toes! I felt like I got a good workout and the 75 minutes just flew by. I felt all loose afterwards; sort of like I’d had a massage!

A few things that I didn’t like so much. No music. Is that normal for yoga? Also, the instructor was saying the names of poses but I had no clue what she was talking about. I basically had to look around and see what other people were doing. I kind of wish she would have come over to me and helped me with my form on some things. The class was really crowded, though, so maybe that’s why she didn’t.

We talked about going back next week. The only thing stopping me from going regularly is the cost. It was $17 for one class. If you do more, the cost per class decreases, but it’s still a lot considering that I already spend $35 a month at LA Fitness.

Dinner tonight was a frozen Kashi pizza. For a pizza that prides itself on being veggie, there were very few vegetables on this thing. Fortunately, in the depths of my freezer, I found some frozen peppers and onions and some broccoli. I took a picture, but my camera is in the other room and it’s a frozen pizza, not very blogworthy!

Now what?

I wanted to use up my leftover bean/rice mix for dinner tonight. I thought about doing another stuffed pepper but decided to get creative instead. I attempted to make black bean burgers out of the mixture. I didn’t have any eggs so I used 1 tbsp flax seed and 3 tbsp water. I mixed that with the bean mixture and pan fried it. Total recipe FAIL.

The outside crisped up but the inside was still the consistency of a bean dip. Oh well, I ate it anyway. I think my bean/salsa to rice ratio was not right. Too many watery ingredients. I tried. This plate is desperately missing a green vegetable. I need to go to the grocery store.

I ran 3 miles during my lunch break today. I figured two days without exercise was sufficient. I’ve read that you are supposed to take as many days of as miles of the race, but I think that’s BS. I’m not going to take two weeks off! I’m kind of at a loss for what to do now though. I am the type of person that thrives on a training schedule. Leave me to my own accord and well, it doesn’t work. I would like to maintain my endurance level. That’s something that I struggle with after every race.

I’m still debating whether or not I should run the 5K on Saturday morning. I’m actually planning on going to the festival later in the day. The only reason not to run it would be because I want to sleep in, but considering I’ve pretty much lost my ability to, that’s not a good reason. I guess I should just sign up. I emailed the race director to see if there was race day registration, which there is, since I’m being so indecisive about this.

Blame it on the Rain

They posted the chip time for Saturday’s race. 2:17:02. 33 seconds off from a PR! I’m so pissed. If it hadn’t rained the entire time, I would have definitely PR’d. Oh well. It’s still pretty damn close, right?

I’m kind of on the hunt for some sort of PR now. I’ve run a bunch of races and it seems like, with the exception of this one, I’m just getting slower. I know I should incorporate more speedwork and tempo runs into the mix if I want to get faster. I’m kind of thinking about running a 5K this weekend. I feel like if I could almost PR in a 13.1 mile race, I can certainly run my little heart out in a 3.1 mile one.

This is one of the more flattering race pictures that I’ve ever had taken. And that’s saying a lot since I kind of look like I want to die.

As you can see from the picture, it’s a really pretty trail. The whole race was on it, so the scenery was nice.

My two friends and I. This would be such a cute picture if my visor wasn’t pushing down on my ears like that.

I pretty much ate like crap all weekend. I got back on track today though. For dinner, I was determined to use up some peppers that I had in the fridge. The easiest thing to do with peppers, imo, is stuff them. I took some leftover beans from last week’s chili and pureed them with some salsa. Then I mixed the bean stuff with Kashi Fiery Fiesta Pilaf. I spooned the mixture into the peppers and microwaved it for three minutes. Then I put cheese on top and microwaved it until the cheese melted. Voila, instant stuffed peppers.

I’m tired. I kind of want to go to sleep. It feels much later than 7:15.

Don’t Save the Date

I spent the majority of yesterday evening snacking and moping. My father called me yesterday wanting to discuss something. It’s never good when you get a phone call from one of your parents stating that they need to discuss something.

He is going to begin the therapy that puts the chemical in his bladder next week, he thinks. That takes six weeks. I guess that he thought that they’d do another biopsy right after the six weeks are up, but that’s not the case. They wait another six weeks or so to give the chemical a chance to do it’s job. So, we won’t know if the therapy works until the end of January or beginning of February. If it does not work, he will have his bladder removed. Like I said before, it’s a major surgery. He’ll be in the hospital for 7-10 days and then there is like a 6 week recovery period, where I guess he has to relearn how to pee, using his fake bladder. You know what’s at the very end of that 6 week recovery period? My wedding.

Theoretically, he will be recovered by then (if he has to have the surgery after all) but there is a chance that he won’t be. People have complications from this, I guess. I just looked it up and 30% of the people who have the surgery have minor complications. So, there’s talk of moving the wedding date. Honestly, I feel awful about it. Everything has been signed. We have the venue, photographer, florist and band. They’ve all been paid deposits. I ordered save the dates already. Fortunately, they haven’t been sent.

And then I feel bad. Like I’m caring about my wedding over my father’s health. Every single person that I’ve talked to has told me that it’s perfectly fine to be upset about this and it doesn’t make me a bad person. I can’t help it though.

So, now I’m just waiting. My father has to talk to his doctor again and ask about it. I guess it just occurred to him. He’s calling the venue to see if they can move the date. He seems to think that May or June would work, but I’m pretty sure that the venue is going to be booked. We booked it 3 months ago and even then, they didn’t have all the dates in May or June available.

My Fifth Half

I love eating pasta the night before a race. I don’t know if the carbs actually help or it’s mental, but I like the tradition of it. We went to Osteria 832 for dinner last night. We started out with some sort of marinara and ricotta dip. It’s not on the online menu but it was delicious. For my entree, I got whole wheat penne with pomodoro sauce. I like this restaurant and have been here a few times, but basically the only thing I ever get is the pomodoro. Or mussels. I am not so adventurous when it comes to Italian food. After dinner, we went home. I worked on a playlist for the race and watched Jason change into a Halloween costume for a party he was going to. I was bummed that the party was last night, instead of tonight when I would have been able to go. Can you tell who he is supposed to be? He said about half of the people at the party knew and the other half had no idea.

I went to sleep around midnight but woke up again at 3 and couldn’t really fall back asleep until 4:30. So when my alarm went off at 5:35, I was not happy. That happens to me a lot when I’m running a big race. I figured a nap was in the plans for this afternoon anyway so it wasn’t a big deal.

The race started at 7:45 and we got there to pick up our numbers at around 7. Pretty much as soon as the race began, it started to rain. I had worn a visor and was really glad that I did. Aside from the rain, the weather was perfect. It was about 60 degrees out. I don’t know if I could have done the race in the rain if it was like 20 degrees cooler.

The actual race was pretty uneventful. The three of us ran the first 2-3 miles together. Then Joan and I ran the next two and after that, I ran by myself. Around mile 6, I had a GU. I think that I like GU better than Sport Beans or anything that you have to chew. I’m not good at chewing and running. Seriously. I was also eating Sport Beans during the end of race and had one or two moments when I almost choked on them.

This race was an out and back. It was nice though, because the back was shorter than the out. So when you got to the turnaround, it felt like halfway, but it was farther. It was also fun to see people you know running in the opposite direction. I saw a girl that I work with going back while I was still going out. Then as I was going back, I saw my friends that I came with and also another girl that I know.

I felt that I was making a decent pace, despite walking through all of the water stations, stopping to tie my shoe twice and jumping in puddles. Miles 10-12 seemed kind of rough. At that point, the end seems so close, but so far away at the same time.

I really, really wanted to PR. So, did I? The answer is I don’t know. I’m thinking that I did not, but it was close which is okay with me too. I crossed the finish line at 2:19 something (I am not what you’d call a fast runner!) and I just looked up my half marathon PR (which is this race) which is 2:16:30. They haven’t posted the chip time yet, but I don’t think that I crossed the start line three minutes after the race started. It would be nice if I did, but I don’t think so.

Running in the rain wasn’t so bad. Especially since this was on a trail and the trees sort shielded everyone. But waiting at the finish line for my friends was pretty miserable. It started to rain harder at that point and I was freezing. They came in about 12-15 minutes after I did and we went to pick up our shirts. Since the race did not start where it ended, they had school buses take everyone back to their cars. Let me tell you, waiting for that school bus in soaking wet clothing in the pouring rain was MISERABLE. We were so cold. Needless to say, I took a very long, hot shower when I got home.

I was messing around on Facebook and saw that Emily had posted that she made pumpkin pancakes. I decided this was exactly what I wanted. I used a whole wheat pancake mix (the name escapes me and I don’t feel like going into the kitchen to look it up) and added 1/2 cup of pumpkin and decreased the milk to 3 tbsp. This made the batter too thick, so I increased the milk some. Topped with pumpkin butter, of course.

Now, I’m off to be lazy. I deserve it! I can’t wait to find out my chip time. The suspense! And thank you everyone for your comments on my last post. It means a lot to me.